Questions and Answers
What are some of the challenges that I might face when taking online courses?
A lot of the time when students are transitioning to online school, students will face problems such as, falling behind easily, getting distracted, Wi-Fi/connection issues, not understanding the instructions or something from a quiz, assignment, or project. Reaching out to teachers, staff, or parents is key to staying on top of it and solving the problems much quicker. Making schedules and working with your child and their teachers to stay caught up and making sure they understand the content is key too.
What do I do when I feel stuck or bogged down?
When a student is feeling bogged down or stuck, they should always advocate for themselves and ask for help. It is essential that a student communicates with his/her teachers or staff to alleviate some of the stress and help get back on track, as well as staying productive.
How do I keep myself from being distracted?
There are many strategies that can help a student focus better and avoid distractions. For instance, it may be helpful to create a schedule that allows you to have some short brain breaks. Another very important factor is a quiet location, a good set of noise-canceling headphones, or some instrumental music to drown out background noise.
How can I make sure I stay on pace?
Make sure that you stick to a schedule when you attend an online school. You can make your own schedule/calendar or if your teachers create a suggested pacing schedule, following that would be helpful as well. It is very important that as an online learner, you are disciplined and do not procrastinate. The student should always make good use of their time in order for them to stay on task and reach their goals.
Q: How do you connect with your teachers in a timely fashion when you have questions or are stuck on a concept?
A: A lot of teachers use different forms of communication depending on how they run their online class.
If your teacher uses Schoology, you can message them straight from inside Schoology. In the top right corner, there is an icon that looks like an envelope. Just click on the icon, click “New Message” and type in your teacher’s name.
If your teacher uses Google Classroom, you can add a private or class comment on an assignment. To add a private comment, click on the assignment and look under your student work for the “add a private comment” field. To add a class comment, look at the bottom of the assignment for the “add a class comment” field. If you add a class comment, your whole class will be able to see both your question and your teacher's response.
If you aren’t using either of those platforms, you can always email your teacher. Make sure to be polite and concise. Know that your teachers are busy, but it's always a good idea to follow up if they don’t respond in a few days.
Q: How do you manage all of your different responsibilities?
A: When trying to manage different responsibilities while learning online, it helps to categorize the different responsibilities. You can try writing out a list of everything you need to do and labeling each item with a different label such as school responsibility, home responsibility, and extracurricular responsibility. You can also try listing your responsibilities in order of importance. This will help you prioritize your time. If you find yourself falling behind, look back at your list to see if there are things that aren’t as important that could either move down on the list or be saved for a later date. Keeping self-discipline and making sure all the responsibilities are taken care of is important.
Q: Schoology can be confusing when submitting an assignment, how do I find a solution or help for that?
Q: How long should I work in a day, and how long does the school work normally take to complete?
A: For Jeffco Virtual Academy, the guideline is that students are expected to work for 5-7 hours per week in each of their classes. Some people like to spend an hour each day, per class, and divide their work up that way. Personally, I like to complete my classes in more of a block schedule. So, I will do one class per day, each day, instead of doing each class each day. Each student has specific classes and workloads, finding the best times to complete work in a block or small amounts per day is important to figure out and it is recommended at least an hour per class per day (besides block scheduling) to ensure you understand the content and are putting enough time and effort into assignments.
Q: What should I do if I start to fall behind in my class(es)?
A: The most important thing to do when you fall behind in a class is to communicate with your teacher. Send them a polite email about the work you are missing and ask if they have any suggestions on how to get the work done. Be flexible with what your teacher suggests and respond to them if you have any questions about their suggestions for finishing the work. After you have contacted your teacher, it helps to make a list of all the assignments that you are missing and set a deadline for each assignment. This will help you stay organized and not put off the assignments you are trying to finish. When you are done with the assignment, reach back out to your teacher to let them know you have finished it.
Q: How do you manage group projects?
A: Most online assignments where there are group interactions or projects allow interactions or assignments where you can chat with other students in a discussion or in a video call with other students. If the teacher assigns a group project, they are most likely going to allow you to gain access to the other persons or group emails or contact information so the students can communicate off of the school website to be able to finish a project. Reaching out to students in the same class as you, communicating with them about the assignment as much as possible and using group discussions/chats will be the best way to finish group projects.
Q: Is it possible to get ahead in my class(es)?
A: This is something that is individual to all students. If you want to get ahead in your classes you can talk to your teachers and give them the reasons why you want to get ahead. Generally, working ahead is not common because the teachers like to keep all students at the same point. You could possibly do work ahead of time that is given for the week (for example how at JVA teachers have the weeks worth of work put out in a folder to be completed one step at a time), so you would be spending more time per day doing a single or multiple classes, but have more of the work done so by the end of the week, you could have all of the assignments already completed or only very few tasks or assignments left.
Q: How do you balance email and other notifications from all your teachers?
A: A good way to balance notifications is to prioritize them. If the email was only sent to you about an assignment or grade, that should be first on your list. If the email was just a general update to your whole class, then it is not as big of a priority. Keep note of where your teaches send out notifications (Gmail, remind, google classroom, an update board in Schoology, etc), check the location of the notifications daily, and find a way that works for you where you can organize and keep track of the emails and updates.
Q: How can I balance taking care of my siblings/other family members and trying to do school work?
A: Balancing family time and work is a sticky subject. A good thing to do is talk to your parents/guardians and maybe go over the amount of work you have each day or every week. This can allow you to make a schedule. Maybe when you are taking a break, you can go on a walk with your family or spend some time at night with them. Family dinners are a good way to keep family interaction. Multitask with watching a sibling by maybe having them do something in the room you're doing schoolwork in, have them do something else in the house if you need to concentrate, if possible have everyone do school work at a certain time or all together in a room of the home, and just making a schedule based around the sibling or family member, giving you enough time to watch them and leave a few hours for school work.